Readers,
The end of January is here and what a month it has been. Although I haven't bought any new stock this month, there are still dividends that flowed into the account. Let's review them:
January 2016 Dividends:
WMT - Walmart - $7.84
GE - General Electric - $5.75
GPS - Gap Inc. - $4.83
T - AT&T - $14.88
Total Dividend Income for January: $33.30
Total for 2016: $33.30
These are great starting numbers for the year. Although the portfolio is still very small (about $4,000 while I write this post) it still has a long way to grow. Some may say that I could be throwing more money at stocks that pay much higher dividends but to them I say good day! The stocks that I invest in for the dividend portfolio here are meant to be the highest quality of stocks that I can find that pay any sort of dividend. I don't want to cloud my mind by only seeking the highest dividend payout when in reality it may not be the best company to place my money into. Although it is very hard to ignore some of the really high paying dividend yields, time has taught me that doing so is one of the quickest ways to get yourself into trouble. If a company is around that pays much higher dividends, is set at a fair price, and has horrible financials that insist that it's not a worthwhile bet, you can bet I'll be holding onto my money and waiting for a better time instead of simply tossing some of my money at it to blindly push the portfolio forward. If however, a company with a smaller dividend payout shows itself at a great price and has solid financials and history, I would rather spend my hard earned capital on that instead. This will attempt to ensure the future success of the portfolio rather than a short burst of dividend payouts.
Now it's your turn:
What companies are you currently looking at? Are there any listed in my portfolio that you are also invested in?
**Edit on 2/2/2016 to add T's late dividend to the payout on 1/31/2016
Hi brad, nice dividends I agree Walmart and General Electric are quality companies and I am also a shareholder of those.
ReplyDeleteI am also guilty of having some questionable high yield stocks, I would say a balanced portfolio is probably the best approach.
Dividend Force,
DeleteThanks for the comment. I really enjoy having WMT and GE in my portfolio. They were probably two of the strongest base companies I could start with. GE has preformed especially well over the last year after I loaded into them at the very beginning.
I'm glad that we agree on the high yield stocks though - they'll come up and bite you in the ass if you're not careful.
Dividends continue to flow regardless of new buys. That's the beauty. Once you start on this journey it tends to carry on with its own momentum. We share GE for the month of Jan. Keep building that dividend snowball!
ReplyDeleteKeith,
ReplyDeleteYou couldn't be more right. In the month of January alone, my dividends already account for about 50% of what I made in the entire previous year. I'm hoping to reach $150 in dividends for this year when it's all said and done. Ride the momentum train!
Thanks for the comment,
-DM